The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor structure, and particularly to a method of preventing merger of raised active regions from adjacent semiconductor fins employing a fin end spacer, and structures formed by the same.
Fin field effect transistors are widely employed in advanced semiconductor circuits for their superior performance over planar field effect transistors. Fin field effect transistors provide a high on-current per area and full depletion of a channel during operation. One of the challenges for implementing fin field effect transistors is the tendency for raised active regions, which include raised source regions and raised drain regions, in adjacent semiconductor fins to be electrically shorted unless sufficient lateral distance is provided among the adjacent semiconductor fins. While an electrical short between two semiconductor fins may be avoided by increasing a lateral spacing between the two semiconductor fins, the increase in lateral spacing among semiconductor fins results in an overall decrease in the areal density of semiconductor devices. Thus, a method is desired for preventing electrical shorts among adjacent semiconductor fins without reduction in the areal density in the semiconductor devices.